A Fine Bromance

Remember when a whole bunch of suckers from our side of the aisle got all gooey about Rand Paul, because Aqua Buddha and Aqua Buddha alone stood between us and a Hellfire missile fired up our keisters from a drone because we said mean things about the president? Well, in the days since, Aqua Buddha's shown that he has more than a small sweet-tooth for the days when Freedom meant states could keep black people from eating in restaurants and, of course, voting.

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"So really, I don't think there is objective evidence that we're precluding African-Americans from voting any longer."

Voters such as Willie David Whiting, a Tallahassee pastor who has never been convicted of a crime, testified that they were denied their rights to vote because the lists conflated him with felon Willie J. Whiting. The purge list parameters considered him a "derived," or approximate, match (see November 7, 2000). Whiting had to threaten to bring his lawyer to the precinct before being allowed to vote. "I felt like I was slingshotted back into slavery," he testified. He tried to understand why he and so many others were denied their right to vote. "Does someone have a formula for stealing this election?" he says he asked himself. Overall, the new purge lists are hugely disproportionate in including black citizens. Hillsborough County's voting population is 15 percent black, but 54 percent of its purged voters are black. Miami-Dade County's voting population is 20 percent black, but 66 percent of its purged voters are black. Leon County's voting population is 29 percent black, but 55 percent of its purged voters are black.